Guitarist Carlos Santana recently discussed the reunion he’s undertaking with his most famous Santana band, the band that played Woodstock and released his first three albums — “Santana” in 1969, “Abraxas” in 1970 and “Santana III” — in 1971.

“Everyone is healthy and very powerful. Neal Schon got this started. He hunted me down like a guided missile,” the 66-year-old Santana told Rolling Stone about Schon, the guitarist who founded Journey after leaving Santana.

Then Santan explained that they called upGreg Rolie (the singer-organist who founded Journey with Schon), Michael Shrieve (the drummer who electrified the world with his solo during Santana’s “Soul Sacrifice” in the classic 1970 Best Documentary film, “Woodstock”) and Michael Carabello (one of that band’s three percussionists).

“We had three days in the studio and we put a lot of music together,” Santana continued. “I’m happy to tell you that it was just like Led Zeppelin, The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix. There’s a chemistry with us. These are the people who were playing with me at Woodstock. It’s amazing.”

He added that he thinks the reunited band will tour next year.

“I really look forward to that,” he said. “It’s been so much fun to be back in the room with them. You can hear the music coming out of them just looking at them. It’s very inspiring.”

Rare solo tour from Moodies’ Justin Hayward

Justin Hayward, the main singer-songwriter of The Moody Blues, is in the midst of a rare solo acoustic tour that will make three southern California stops: June 2 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, June 3 at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and June 4 at the Canyon Club in Agoura.

The brief 15-concert jaunt concludes in Canada on June 13 at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, British Columbia.

Among the popular album cuts the always-classy 67-year-old has been performing are “It’s Up To You” from 1970’s “A Question of Balance,” Moodies drummer Graeme Edge’s “In the Beginning” that opens their 1969 “On the Threshold of a Dream” album, and “I Dreamed Last Night,” from his and Moodies’ singer-bassist John Lodge’s 1975 album, “Blue Jays.”

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Hayward joined The Moodies in late 1966 after being referred by Animals singer Eric Burdon. He changed the entire direction of the band, from blues-based rockers to progressive classical rockers, whose prominent use of the London Festival Orchestra on his first LP with them, “Days of Future Past” in 1967 ushered in the progressive rock and classical rock era of grand pop and rock music. That album contained two all-time classics, both written by Hayward, “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon.”

Songs of Our Lives benefit concert

Legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier and David Crosby will be feted at the 7th Annual Songs of Our Lives concert on June 7 at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills.

Freda Payne, whose biggest hit, “Band of Gold,” reached No. 3 in the U.S. and topped the British singles chart in 1970, is the headliner.

Proceeds benefit the Fulfillment Fund that is dedicated to “making college a reality for students growing up in educationally and economically under-resourced communities.” For tickets, go to www.fulfillment.org/concert.

Jim Nabors retires

Jim Nabors, best known as TV’s “Gomer Pyle” was a popular balladeering crooner in the 1960s and ‘70s. It was in 1972 that he began a tradition of singing “Back Home Again in Indiana,” that state’s official song prior to the start of the Indianapolis 500 race every Memorial Day.

The 83-year-old Nabors did it in person again this year — for the 37th and final time. He said he “loved every minute of it. But there’s a time in life when you have to move on.”

“I’ll be 84 this year and I figured it was time,” he said. “I’ve had a really good time.”

He told the Indianapolis Star of the first time he performed the ritual he thought he’d be at the race to sing the national anthem.

“I thought I was going to sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’ I got over there to meet the conductor (of the Purdue University Band) and I said, ‘What key are you guys doing this in?’ He looked at me and said, ‘We only have one key.’ I said, ‘No, (it) has two keys.’ He said, ‘Well, you’re not singing that.’ I said, ‘What the hell am I singing?’ It was only five minutes before race time,” he recalled.

Believe it or not, not only has Mick Jagger been Sir Mick for more than a decade (he was knighted in 2003) and 70 years of age (he’ll turn 71 on July 26), but he is now a great-grandfather. His granddaughter, Assissi, gave birth to a baby girl, the Daily Mail reports. The baby’s name has not been disclosed.

Metallica front man James Hetfield will narrate a new eight-episode series on The History Channel. “The Hunt” follows a group of hunters in Alaska on the chase for the largest predator on the planet, the Kodiak bear. The hunt normally lasts only 10 days with the hunters living off the land during that time.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulates this and allots 496 tags or permits via a lottery draw. The show premieres June 8.

Cher, who just celebrated her 68th birthday on the road with her first major tour in more than a decade, “Dressed to Kill,” tweeted that while she’s aware of her actual age, she feels decades younger.

Upon receiving a ton of birthday wishes, she tweeted: “Thanx Chickadees. This is Hard 4 me. I Feel like 25 So the Real # comes as quite a little shock. Guess 67 wasn’t enough of a CLUE.”

Cher hits the 11,089-seat Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario on July 5, the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, the Honda Center on July 9 and the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego on July 11.

Guns N’ Roses founding bassist rejoined the band led by Axl Rose on its recent South American tour because current bassist Tommy Stinson temporarily rejoined his earlier band The Replacements for that iconic alt-rock group’s recent two-show reunion on consecutive weekends at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio.

Guns N’ Roses are currently playing a six-bight residency at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas with Stinson back in the fold.

Julie Andrews recalls surprising tourists

As a recent guest on the BBC’s “Graham Norton Show,” Julie Andrews recalls a time when she surprised a group of tourists by singing for them.

She told Norton that one day shortly after filming on her beloved 1965 family film classic, “The Sound of Music,” she took a walk by herself in the Swiss Alps and found herself alone on a deserted mountainside “so I thought, ‘This is ridiculous, there’s not a soul around’ and I sang, ‘The hills are alive...’ just as a whole bunch of Japanese tourists came over the hill. You should have seen their faces!”

Steve Smith writes a new Classic Pop, Rock and Country Music News column every week. Contact him by email at Classicpopmusicnews@gmail.com.